Bust Along - part 1

Okay, so this is my stash, well part of it. The other part you can see by going here. I just couldn't bear to pull it out of under the bed again!! I pulled all my little stashes out of here and there and the car and my office. So this is it! I am somewhere between embarassed and horrified. However, I am really excited to just knit all those projects that I bought this yarn for, for the next three months or more!! I will admit to a little pre-stash busting stock up. There were 4 skeins of yarn that could have made me cheat, so I bought them. Now I am ready!!

new purpose

I have found a new purpose for this blog!! Yipee!! It is so sad to see it sit idle....So I have decided that this will be the gallery of finished objects. All the details, rants and other stuff will be at http://sunnelite.blogspot.com still - this will just be finished projects with details to what I did, and pattern links - if there is one. This way, I will be able to flip through finished projects without all the other stuff and it will be fun to look back at the end of the year. Plus, for all those projects that I don't actually admit to making will be shown on here too! Shhhhhh! Quite excited about this little showcase....See you soon!

time to go!

Okay, I lied, there will be no more picture posts to this blog -- well maybe, this may become the secret blog, maybe -- anyhow, please direct your attention to my new beta blog http://sunnelite.blogspot.com/ it will have all the newest of the new, all the knitting, all the posting, all the fun. Sorry for the inconvience, but it is very nice there -- you will feel right at home once you switch your links.

Thanks for reading!
Have a nice day!

the count down continues . . .

Everything is in the works to switch to beta on thursday - forever! I have at least one more post for this blog, but with Bill's surprise party and all, I forgot the camera this morning. Then there is LA tomorrow for work, wednesday will be lost to short-trip-recovery and merchandising, and thursday, I will probably have a little posting time between interviews - just to get you all linked, switched, settled and introduce you to the new digs.

There has been a bunch of crafting going on - working on my punk christmas trees, flowers to go on the boxes at the store and knitting. While I swore there wouldn't be, a couple of new hats have turned up. However, it is only a scarf and knucks that are making it on the plane with me. Photos soon . . .

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
Sending you lots of love, good birthday wishes and many more fun filled Bill Meyer Days to be spent together!
I Love You!

kinda boring . . .

Well, its kinda boring, but this is what I am doing right now. Its just hats. I have so many small christmas gifts and I have been working on so many big projects that I have been just knitting hats. I am using Lornas Laces shepard worsted - so they are easy and fast. I am getting one or two a day done. It is really fun to start a hat in the morning and finish it by the time I am ready for bed. Although, I am starting to get the itch for bigger projects. I still have knucks, fetching and mittens to do, so we will start with them next.

Have a great week!

done . . .

Here is a less then inspiring photo of the amazing blanket that I finished for my MIL. The photo doesn't really do it any justice. It is the Ombre blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. She asked for the blanket and chose the colors and it really was a fun knit! The blanket turned out slightly larger then intended. It is 54" x 78". The alpaca has a great weight to it, so I will be really sad to see it go -- it was a joy to knit! (this is the project that I posted by husband winding all the yarn for back in Sept.)

And I am officially announcing that I will keep this blog till the 30th of November then I will be moving everything over to my new Beta Blog - Sunnelite. It is too much work to keep up with both, so soon you will have to come visit me there. By then I should have the beta site looking a little better, just like with this one, it is all a learning curve. . .

Tarot Cards . . .

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

a relaxing weekend in virginia

So here are a few of the photos from our very relaxing weekend in Virginia. We have Maeve with her "crazy hair day" braids -- Avalon actually smiling for the camera (rare for any 12 year old!) -- Faerin climbing on the tree -- me and the little girls on the swings -- and Foamhenge!!
It really was a very relaxing weekend! The weather was perfect - I got to knit with Jules (five hats done over the weekend!!) and go to this really wonderful yarn store/berry farm in the middle of nowhere (too cool!!) - go antiquing - run through the backside of W&L's campus - see Robert E Lee's tomb - and just generally decompress. Thanks Jules, James and girls!! I think that Bill really enjoyed himself too!


Now we are back to planning for the holiday - finishing up our Chirstmas shopping and knitting - working - and getting the house ready for our Christmas tree -- we go Christmas tree hunting in three weeks.

knitters coffee swap questions

Here are my coffee swap questions -

1. Whole bean or ground?
It really doesn't matter, the coffee fairy manages to brew both.

2. Fully-loaded or decaf?
Definately fully-loaded!

3. Regular or flavored?
Regular

4. How do you drink your coffee?
I take my coffee black and my espresso as a latte

5. Favorite coffee ever?
My favorite coffee ever was not so much about the coffee as the pot. One of my college roommates had this super old coffee pot that brewed coffee on the stove (I think, a little fuzzy on the details, it was a long time ago). This coffee pot made the best coffee! It was amazing with really good coffee, but it could also take icky cheap coffee and make it taste great! We think is was something about the seasoning on the pot. Never in all my years of thrifting have I seen a pot like that, or had coffee that tasted that good! I supposed its about the quest now . . .

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do?
Medium not fussy, I won't drink Maxwell House, but don't discriminate between Kona and Ethopian or the like.

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee?
I like chocolate with my coffee. Sometimes its a little square of the real thing, sometimes a small cookie. I am allergic to wheat, so I have to be careful about my intake of wheat - which is in everything - so I small portions are key -- along with brown rice flour.

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?
No

9. What treats do you enjoy with your coffee?
please refer to #7 - chocolate!

10. Yarn/fiber you love?
This might be a little long. . . I am kind of a hippy girl at heart so I love the organic, low impact, natural yarns as long as they are not scratchy. Also, the yarns that are creating a sustainable economy in villages across the world. It is comforting for me to think that I am doing something that I love and helping someone else at the same time. On the regular knitter girls side, superwash merino is right up there too! It is not itchy, can be used for just about any project, and there are so many beautiful color options. I really like yarn produced by small manufacturers (local artists, Etsy shops, ect.), I like that people can live their dreams.

11. Yarn/fiber you hate?
Novelty, acrylic, mohair and angora

12. What's on your needles?
Right now I am down to mostly quickie holiday gifts - I have two hats on needles, one pair of knucks (fingerless gloves), a scarf, the ombre blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and on the back burner Hush,Hush dress by knitty for me. I have about 7 more sets of knucks to finish, and 5 more hats after the ones I am on right now, and my holiday knitting will be complete!

13. Favorite colors?
I like all the earthy colors; tans, browns, greens, blues, and deeper reds. Being pale pastels, oranges, pinks, and yellows tend to make me look a little dead.

14. Allergies?
Just wheat.

15. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest?
This is my first not-secret swap! I think it is going to be so fun to chat with my swapee and not have to be so secretive. Fun!Fun!

Too cute!

I sent this hat to my friend Paul for his new(ish) daughter Lexi. This picture came with the thank you. It was too sweet to not share! Who doesn't love a cute, smiley, chubby baby?

And slowly I am conquoring the world with punk striped baby hats, one friend's baby at a time. This one is a little girlier then usual in pink and white.

hats and knucks, hats and knucks

Well it is that giftie time of the year - or it is if you are making a bunch of your holiday gifts!
Since there hasn't been much knitting posting here for a bit - I am posting the flat hat that I made for Piper Maurer, 12 days old. It was my first flat hat. A very quick knit, even with the stripes - it was just the seaming that took a little time. I do think that it turned out really cute!

Then there are the holiday knucks in progress. We are leaving for VA this weekend and it is a long flight so I am hoping to whip out a few more knucks, so that one night next week I can just finish them all off! The tan ones are 100% alpaca - it is soooo soft, but it has no give. No more solid alpaca knucks! I accidently made them one size larger then I meant to, but that turned out to be great, since they would have been too small otherwise! The other are Lorna's laces shepards worsted, which is great! I am very excited about these since I dropped two needle sizes for the cuff - and it worked! No more floppy wrist!

Have a great week!

Happy Birthday Mubs!!

This is my grandmother (and me Easter 2006) who taught me to knit. I love Mubs, that is what I call her. She has lived a wonderful life and seen so many things. She grew up on a farm in Montana, had to live in town away from her family to go to school, skipped two years of high school, graduated at the top of her class, worked till she married, raised two great daughters, did a ton of Volunteering for the American Red Cross, has always been a wonderful grandmother, mother and wife of 60 some years to Mac, a devoted Washinton State Univerity Cougars fan, Mariners Fan and Seahawk fan. She taught me to knit when I was 9. I think I still do it because she is so cool and it makes me feel closer to her. She is 100% Bohemian (so I was very excited to join that surf ring and again honor her.) She turned 87 on November 4th in Colfax, WA, where she still lives by herself, drives safely, gardens, goes to Pullman for all the WSU home football and basketball games, meets her two best girlfriends for coffee and to talk politics every Sunday, knits and sews occasionally and loves fast food restaurants (Arby's and Taco Time). Happy Birthday Mubs!! It was great to see you two weeks ago!! I love you!!

Halloween Re-cap

So here was our Halloween last night! The very scary pumpkins on the porch - that photo does make the porch look a little scary, actually. The pumpkin to the far left got a little munched on by squirrels - it used to have 8 teeth upper and lower, oh well.

Then we have my cute husband (cute in a rugged and manly way) on the porch with the cocktail of the evening - Grandma Baileys Dirty Bush. It seemed that all the neighbors came to our porch to hang out and have a cocktail, which was fun! Unfortunately, there weren't too many trick or treaters as it was really cold!!

And finally we have Josh, who lives downstairs, and Bella his 8 month old Boston Terrier, who is the sweetest dog ever (as long as you don't mind having your fingers munched on occasionally!)

Fun all around, except that we have a whole huge bowl of candy left over from the non-existant trick or treaters!! At
least we buy the good stuff . . .

Hats

It seems that right now, I am making a lot of hats. I think that its because it is getting really cold out! I finished this one while waiting on non-existant trick or treaters last night. It is for me and the best part is, I have enough yarn left to make a matching pair of knucks -- yikes! I am getting old, thinking of wearing things in matching sets! The funny thing about this hat is that the yarn looks really blue to me - and pretty blue in the photo too, but in person, I think it looks very green . . . magic, I guess.

this weekends fun . . .

was a great package arriving from my prge pal - Thanks Whippy Gingersnaps!! It is the amazing knit picks yarn - Andean Silk - in black. The four skeins are perfect for the aran scarft that I have been wanting to make - and it will be sooo soft!!
There is a really cute measuring tape - and I am always looking for one of those! The knitticisms book, which my husband and I laughed about through breakfast yesterday and a cute Halloween card! And it came in the cute envelope, too (I had to picture that too, since it was so bright and happy!) Thanks again, Whippy!

Then there was Halloween for adults! Nothing too racy, just a black tie Halloween bash. It was very un-Denver. There was drag-queen karioke (sp?), an ariealist (sp?) who wound herself up in these long pieces of fabric and danced her way back down, an opera singer, and a firebreather. It was very cool and masks were required - the amount of time that people spent on their masks and outfits was amazing! Of course, I forgot my camera, so this was the after photo of Bill and I. If I get more photos from Andre, I will post because they were great!
Happy Halloween!!

Another quiz

What Color is Your Brain?

GREEN: At work or in school: I work best by myself. I like to focus on my ideas until my desire for understanding is satisfied. I am easily bored if the subject holds no interest to me. Sometimes, it is hard for me to set priorities because so many things are of interest. With friends: I may seem reserved. Although my thoughts and feelings run deep, I am uneasy with frequent displays of emotion. I enjoy people who are interesting and of high integrity. With family: I am probably seen as a loner because I like a lot of private time to think. Sometimes, I find family activities boring and have difficulty following family rules that don't make sense to me. I show love by spending time with my family and sharing ideas and interests. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

CAKE

I personally believe that cake is its own food group -- good cake anyway! When I stopped to give myself a treat (yummy skinny chai) for driving to Boulder at 7:15 this morning -- the coffee shop had these cupcakes. (No, its not wheat free, so I should not eat it, but I promise I'll be good for a long time after this) Cake and skulls, does life get any better?

snow day!!

I Think that someone in a high up place read my last blog entry (before today's three). Yesterday my number wasn't chosen for jury duty, so I got to get some house work done -- not fun, but definately made me feel better! And today I have a snow day, so work is slow and I can work on getting my office caught up - yeah!! Of course, what am I doing - posting on blogger -- typical procrastinator! No, really time to work, now that everything is posted!

Have a great week!

the stash

Yesterday, I had a free day. My jury duty was cancelled! Yeah!! So I decided that as a house cleaning project, I really should organize and re-stash my stash. It was slowly taking over the whole house! Not too hard to believe when you see the photos - keep in mind that there are no before and after - there is just multiple photos because I could not fit it all in one. There was yarn that I had forgotten that I had, that I knew I had but couldn't find, that is for a project that was next on my list and then got pushed down because there was something else I HAD to make, and then there was just yarn. After 5+ hours it is now all organized into 8 bins and two
xxl zip lock bags. I know that I have all the yarn that I need for making all the christmas presents that I had planned - yeah!! There was even the gold sparkly yarn that my mom requested in her knucks (scary but true). Hopefully, I can keep it nice and organized and use some of my stash up! Now I remember why I am on a yarn diet -- it is either that or opening up my own yarn store with what lives under my bed! :)